International spiritual leader Didi Krishna challenged Virgin Islanders to take ownership of their future through intentional choices, gratitude, service and self-reflection Thursday during a program titled “Design Your Destiny” at The Westin Beach Resort & Spa.
Hosted by the Indian Association of the Virgin Islands in partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands and the Sadhu Vaswani Center for World Peace, the event drew a full room of community members from all walks of life, joining educators, business leaders and public officials for an evening centered on personal growth, leadership and purposeful living.
The program featured remarks from University of the Virgin Islands President Safiya George, Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett and Lt. Gov. Tregenza A. Roach, all of whom reflected on themes of purpose, leadership and service that would later be echoed throughout Krishna’s presentation.
For many members of the local East Indian community, the gathering carried special significance. During closing remarks, Indian Association of the Virgin Islands President Pash Daswani reflected on moving to St. Thomas from Pune, India, in 1982 and described welcoming a spiritual leader from his hometown more than four decades later as a moment that felt guided by destiny.
Krishna serves as the head of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission, an international spiritual and humanitarian organization known for its emphasis on compassion, service, education and personal transformation. She assumed leadership of the mission in 2018 following the passing of her mentor, Dada J.P. Vaswani, whom she referenced throughout the evening, and continues to share the mission’s message through programs and outreach efforts around the world.
Earlier in the program, Serena Mohanani and Manav Lalwani introduced attendees to the vision of the Sadhu Vaswani Center for World Peace, which is founded on the belief that lasting world peace begins with peace within the individual.
They described the center’s mission of cultivating gratitude, forgiveness, compassion and service while supporting educational and community-based initiatives designed to promote personal growth and social harmony. The pair also shared plans for a permanent center in New Jersey that will serve as both a physical gathering space and digital platform dedicated to peacebuilding, character development, youth education and humanitarian outreach.
Plaskett later recognized Mohanani for her volunteer work with the Sadhu Vaswani Center for World Peace and her efforts in helping organize the event.
Building on those themes, Krishna centered her presentation on a simple but powerful premise: people are not victims of circumstance but architects of their own lives.
“We are not victims; we are the architects of our lives,” Krishna told attendees.
Throughout her remarks, Krishna encouraged participants to look inward rather than outward when evaluating their lives. While people often find it easier to identify the shortcomings of others, she said, genuine growth begins with honest self-reflection.
Using stories and practical examples, Krishna emphasized that destiny is shaped less by fate than by the choices individuals make every day.
She illustrated the concept through a simple framework of birth, choices and death. While birth and death remain outside human control, she said, the choices made between them ultimately determine the course of a person’s life.
“Yesterday’s choices are today’s destiny, and today’s choices create tomorrow’s destiny,” she said.
Krishna also spoke about the importance of managing one’s thoughts, describing them as the building blocks of life. Negative thoughts, she said, can quickly multiply and influence a person’s outlook, while positive thoughts require conscious cultivation.
Among her recommendations were beginning each day with gratitude, spending time in silence, focusing on the breath and letting go of resentment and comparison.
“Comparison is the thief of happiness,” she said, encouraging attendees to recognize the abundance already present in their lives.
A recurring theme throughout the presentation was that happiness is not something to be pursued externally but something already present within each individual. The challenge, Krishna suggested, is learning to access that inner reservoir through awareness, discipline and reflection.
The themes shared by Krishna resonated with leaders from across the territory.
George shared that UVI has begun exploratory conversations with the Sadhu Vaswani Center for World Peace regarding a possible future collaboration. While emphasizing that discussions remain in the early stages, she said both organizations see opportunities to explore shared interests in student well-being, values-based leadership, resilience, mindfulness and service.
Plaskett connected Krishna’s message to the territory’s history of perseverance and self-determination.
“The Virgin Islands has never had the luxury of waiting for destiny to arrive,” Plaskett said. “We have had to fight generation after generation to design our own destiny.”
Roach encouraged attendees to carry the evening’s lessons into their homes and communities.
“We must take responsibility for constructing the world we want to live in,” Roach said. “It begins with these islands that we call our home.”
The evening concluded with Roach presenting Krishna with a proclamation declaring June 18 as Didi Krishna Day in the U.S. Virgin Islands, recognizing her message of compassion, service and personal responsibility.
The recognition served as a fitting close to a program that repeatedly returned to a simple but powerful idea: while people cannot always choose the circumstances they face, they can choose how they respond to them — and in doing so, help shape their own destiny.
